Kurt Russell signs on to play Santa Claus in a Chris Columbus produced Netflix Christmas film

After Kurt Russell’s bumper year, coming off the back of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and The Fate of the Furious, Netflix have lined up the veteran actor to play Santa in a new Christmas offering.

Also joining the cast of Netflix’s Christmas goodness are two young stars we should already be familiar with, Judah Lewis who starred in Netflix’s horror-comedy The Babysitter and Big Little Lies’ Darby Camp.

The film will centre on two siblings (Lewis and Camp) who try to prove that Santa is real by catching him on camera. When they accidentally cause his sleigh to crash in Chicago, they have to help get Christmas back on track before it’s ruined.

The man who directed two Home Alone films, Chris Columbus will be taking up a position as producer on the production which was written by Matt Lieberman who wrote MGM’s stop-motion animated The Addams Family. The script is based on an original idea by David Guggenheim, creator of the TV show Designated Survivor, and Lieberman.

Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe will produce for 1492 Pictures. Executive producing are Ocean Blue Entertainment, Monica Lago Kaytis, Lyn Lucibello, Adam Kolbrenner, Robyn Meisinger and Guggenheim. Erik-Jan De Boer, who won an Oscar for his work on Life of Pi, will oversee the visual effects.

Judah Lewis will next be seen in Summer of ’84, a thriller set to debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Camp has just finished filming on the Dust Bowl drama Dreamland with Margot Robbie and is expected to return for the second season of HBO’s Big Little Lies, reprising her role as Reese Witherspoon’s daughter.

Production on the project is due to start in January 2018 with a planned 2018 Christmas release.

Features and News Writer at HeyUGuys, Once failed wannabe actress, Ex-music industry veteran who once dabbled in Artist Management, and now Film Journalist extraordinaire (for the past 6 years). My love for the arts has seen my fingers in many pies but my love of Film won the battle. Other current work credits include, Film Editor at Flavourmag and Critic/Interviewer at DIY, previous work credits contributor at The Voice Newspaper, film review slot on radio, presented film awards.